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Ouch - October sales in L.A. County were down 26.2 percent from a year earlier and almost 10 percent from a month earlier, according to Dataquick. Sales were way down all over Southern California (Ventura had a nearly 30 percent drop from 2009). While there's usually a slowdown from September to October, it's seldom this severe. And never mind all the hullabaloo about foreclosure filings - there wasn't much change in the percentage of foreclosure-related resales. From press release:
"In addition to a lousy economy, the housing market still has a couple of nasty bottlenecks it has to contend with. First, sales of newly-built homes are at a low, mostly because builders can't build at a low enough price to compete with the inventory of resale homes, many of which are short sales or foreclosures," said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president. "Also, lenders still haven't opened the mortgage money spigot for buying move-up and prestige properties. These properties have come down in value by about half as much as entry-level homes. But trying to finance a higher-end purchase can be a real grind, even for well-qualified buyers with a 20 percent down payment," he said.
Prices are slipping as well. The October median price in L.A. County was $325,000, even with a year earlier but $15,000 lower than for the previous month. L.A. prices have been bouncing between $330,000 and $340,000 for much of the year, suggesting little movement at the higher end. Much of the action remains in the lower-priced range.
OCTOBER HOME SALES (% change from October 2009)
Los Angeles 5,470 -26.2%
Orange 2,298 -17.9%
Riverside 3,264 -22.2%
San Bernardino 2,343 -26.2%
Ventura 619 -29.6%
OCTOBER MEDIAN PRICE (% change from October 2009)
Los Angeles $325,000 0.0%
Orange $438,000 +0.3%
Riverside $198,000 +4.2%
San Bernardino $150,000 0.0%
Ventura $355,000 -2.7%
Source: MDA DataQuick
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.